UN: El Nino unlikely to hit by end of 2012

November 22, 2012 in Earth / Earth Sciences

A boy walks in front of flooded houses in rural Colombia after the El Nino effect caused rivers to overflow. The UN's weather agency says there is little chance the devastating El Nino will return before the end of 2012.

There is little chance the potentially devastating El Nino weather phenomenon will return before the end of the year, the UN's weather agency said.

"Model forecasts and expert opinion suggest that the likelihood of El Nino conditions developing during the remainder of 2012 is now low," the World Meteorological Organization said in its latest update.

Despite a slight warming of sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific ocean in August and early September—an element to El Nino's development—other factors, including wind and cloud patterns had failed to respond.

The El Nino phenomenon occurs every two to seven years.

It causes a major shift in rainfall, bringing floods and mudslides to usually arid countries in western South America, drought in the western Pacific and a change in the nutrient-rich ocean currents that lure fish.